The Judo instructor is decent, the class is an hour long, and the warm-up was the highlight. As for the class content, I really can't say. Given the class was only an hour long and started late we covered very little. I'm used to longer (2.5hr +) classes so this was disheartening. The class did end with a few minutes of Randori but hardly enough to count. There are definitely better Judo opportunities in Rochester.

The BJJ class, which meets right after the Judo class is taught by a BJJ Blue, who learned the nights techniques from DVD. His instruction was solid, but being a blue belt, and having little direct instructor interaction himself it was missing the little details that really make BJJ good. Given the number of other venues to train BJJ in Rochester under qualified Brown or Black belts the World Gym BJJ program is a joke.

A bit about my ratings.
Aliveness 7: There is sparring, both in the Judo and BJJ class, but so little time is spent that I hesitiate to even award it the seven I gave it.

Equipment 7: The gym is a mixed-use facility. The mats are thick, but dirty. They were not washed before, or after, class. The room has a fair number of support columns throughout that make throws hazardous if you aren't paying attention. However, taking a fall on nearly three inches of mat is heaven. Again, I hesitate to give it the seven I did.

Gym Size 7: The Rochester MMA gym is located in the basement, but it's a big basement. However, with the ring, cage, bag stands, and columns more then the six people we had for Judo would get cramped.

Instructor/Student Ratio 8: There was one Judo instructor to five students, and one BJJ "instructor" for three students. Good ratio.

Atmosphere/Attitude: I left this N/A because I wanted to go into it in more detail then the scale would allow. The atmosphere is laid back, yet it lacked the inclusive feeling that I view as the norm in a gym. It wasn't clickish, but it seemed that if the class was any bigger it would quickly become so. I wasn't terribly thrilled with the atmosphere, but coming from a more traditional Judo dojo some of my confusion may be attributed to the change from a strict Judo class, to more of a MMA style gym.

Grappling Instruction 4: Poor, simply poor. The Judo instructor trains BJJ and incorporated Judo and BJJ to good effect but the short class time hampers the learning.

In short, go elsewhere for Judo and BJJ. I recommend Bushido Kai, or Bedrock, or Renshinkan for Judo, and Saunders or Empire Academy for BJJ. In terms of an MMA environment Empire is head and shoulders above what is offered at Wold Gym.

Last edited by ignatzami; 3/03/2010 10:38am at .

I do not aspire to be great, or even good, I hope to suck a little less then last class.

Also, I've done a bit of judo and BJJ around the area, and the class there didn't seem all that great comparatively, but I haven't taken it and my grappling experience is next to nonexistent, so I didn't want to rate anything unfairly. Thanks for the input, though.

Also, I've done a bit of judo and BJJ around the area, and the class there didn't seem all that great comparatively, but I haven't taken it and my grappling experience is next to nonexistent, so I didn't want to rate anything unfairly. Thanks for the input, though.

They very well could have been mopped earlier in the day, however I'm used to my current Judo club mopping the mats before the start of every class. Not a huge deal, but something to take note of.

I do not aspire to be great, or even good, I hope to suck a little less then last class.

As of this past week, a women's class has been added on Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 to 7:45. It's there for any ladies interested in what we're doing, but haven't had any experience at all and don't want to jump straight in on our normal class(sort of a sausage fest, like most gyms). Lots of basics and proper footwork, and also a heavy emphasis on knees and elbows- Chuck calls it "REAL women's self defense, not this crap where they throw a lousy punch or try to kick a guy in the nuts and yell 'NO' real loud." The class can be taken as an intro to normal training, or on its own.

After that, there's an invitation-only fight training class which goes from 8 to 9 on the same days. This is geared towards the people from the regular class who want to get in the ring, and generally has a hefty focus on mid-to-hard contact sparring with proper technique, developing good ring sense and fight strategies, and building your cardio for the ring. Round breaks are 30 seconds instead of a minute. If there's too much passivity, you drop and do pushups, and get back into it. There's also shark tank nights, where one lucky winner stays in while fresh partners are rotated in every round for 6-8 rounds.

Between M-W-F training, conditioning on Saturday, and the recently-added fighter's class, you could very well training six days a week for 50 bucks a month.

Hi. I'm new to this forum, as well as the whole "martial arts" thing, meaning that I don't have any prior experience in any of the styles. I'm currently doing cardio kickboxing at Kim Murray's Martial Arts school in Webster (3 years and counting), but was looking for something a little more challenging, and a lot more full contact. From what I've heard/read, it looks like Muay Thai would probably fit me best, as I'm definitely more of a striking than grappling type. Again, this is based on the information I've gathered so far, as well as a couple of classes that I've tried (BJJ at Kime Karate in Perinton, and Sayokan at Lifetime Fittness in Penfield). Long story short, can anyone recommend a good Muay Thai, Striking, Boxing, and/or Kickboxing (regular, not cardio) school(s) in Rochester, NY area? I live in Penfield, NY myself, so would prefer to stay on the east side of town, i.e. Penfield, Fairport/Perinton, or Webster. Rochester locations are OK also, as long as they are not too far west, like Greece, Chili, and so on. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.